Spoiler Review – Batman Set

Hey folks,

Some spoiler-y goodness hit the internet this week for the upcoming ‘Batman’ set, in the form of a YouTube review by The Dice Tower:

The legend that is PK2317 over at The Reserve Pool swung into action, delivering his trademark standard, platinum, grade A screen grab service, once again providing a picture gallery for us all to compulsively pour over:

As always: I’ve had a look over and here are my first impression top picks. They are not necessarily the most meta-shaking or powerful, just the ones that have caught my eye on the first few scans through PK2317’s Imgur gallery.

Darkseid – Force of Entropy

Keen, sharp-eyed regular readers will know that a couple of weeks a go I wrote a whole post on a previously spoiled ‘Darkseid’ variant, getting very excited, until it was pointed out to me that I had completely mis-read the card and had it utterly wrong! LOL

suffice to say; I swiftly took the erroneous post down, but it appears I’m not done writing posts about ‘Darkseid’. I just can’t ignore this Super Rare version – it leapt straight out of the gallery at me. (and I’m pretty certain I’ve read it properly this time around!)

The potential ramp efficiency this card could bring is intense, although it is admittedly mitigated by his purchase & fielding cost. 

I’m looking forward to trying him out with some ‘ally’ characters – ‘Alfred Pennyworth –  MI5’ tops the list – to explore the possibilities with him.

 I’m also interested to see if there’s something that could be pulled together in Draft with the new ‘Robin’ cards that have been spoiled – one of whom not only benefits from the ‘Darkseid’ text, but also makes your Sidekicks just that little tougher to clear, increasing the Swarm capacity ‘Darkseid’ adds.

Firefly – Ted Carson

As if Bolt-centric teams weren’t punishing enough with direct damage strategies, then another little zapper comes along.

This dude could really speed up the lethal potential of Bolt ‘Lantern Ring’ teams. A well placed drop of this guy could soften the ground up just enough to require less attacking characters to finish your opponent off.

In a casual setting he’s a Win Con of his own. Get him out early and cycle him around repeatedly to burn your opponent to death. His fielding cost may be a pain point, but could be well worth the cost when he’s firing 3/4 points of damage across the table every time he’s fielded. Double up and…well… see ya later. 

Harley Quinn – Tough Cookie

I saw this one and almost immediately formed a team in my head around it for the regular Tuesday night casuals down my FLGS. It’s not top tier craziness or anything, but she just looks like she might be fun to play.

I’ve a few rules questions (does ‘Harley Quinn’s’ own die count? Can you still deal the damage if you don’t gain life? Does the use of the red ‘V’ symbol exclude Marvel villains from her game-text?) but if it plays in the way I’m assuming it’s intended then I’ve got a lovely weenie Villain deck in mind using some stuff like ‘Lyssa Drak – Future Sight’, ‘Lex Luthor – Greed’, and maybe some swarming ‘Foot Ninja’. 

I can’t wait to give it a try…

 Hawk – Might Makes Right

Once again; another fun peice of tech to be playing around with, that, while probably not a high tier competitive card, is definitely one I fancy playing with in Casual.

I’m thinking about this card in two ways. For Modern Age format I’m thinking I will use ‘Mutation’ global to do some spinning shenanigans with the pair of them (‘Dove’ down, ‘Hawk’ up) and then ping ‘Dove’ off with the ‘Unstable Cannister’ global at lvl 1 (where she only has one defence).

For Golden Age format I’ll be looking to use BEWD global to KO ‘Dove’.

I’m also liking that this pair are Teen Titan affiliated – giving the themed team a nice Win Con to give it s little more offensive edge. (Particularly because I don’t own a SR ‘Starfire’) 

Jervis Tetch – Tea Time

This guy has the potential to really interfere with your opponent’s plans. At worst he going to provide you with two blockers for the price of one, at best he’s going to take the sting right out of your opponent’s strategy by de-powering their attack. 

The ability to grab an opponent’s character to use as a blocker has the potential to be super useful. I love that he will place my opponent in a position to make a tough choice: you’d have to think long & hard about declaring an attack when it will place your own dice at risk. Your opponent’s ‘Oracle’ been giving you the blues? Grab her with ‘Jervis’ and get her KO’d. They’ve got that ‘Foot Ninja’ all pumped up? So what – gonna take control of it & use it as a blocker. ‘Batgirl’ messing with your plans? Pull her over and chuck her in the firing line.

He’s going to be a lot of fun to play with, I can’t wait to see what shenanigans people get up to with him…

Parademon – Strength in Numbers

Initially, when I read this card, I was a bit ‘meh’ and felt it wasn’t quite the card I had hoped it would be when it was first referenced in a “Game Trader” magazine article. Why? Well… I’ve mostly found Swarm cards over a cost of two aren’t as helpful with ramp as I would like them to be. (They can be helpful with other things though – love a bit of SR ‘Stirge’)

But, as I thought more on it something struck me; it’s any extra die from Swarm, it doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘Parademon’ die, does it? This card could be doing some pretty hefty direct damage if paired with a cheaper Swarmer, like ‘Goblin’ or ‘Multiple Man’. 

I’ve been playing around with ‘Multiple Man’ lately and, when it gets up to pace, has me churning through my bag mega-swift. Drop a ‘Parademon’ in the field and this could well be a pretty damaging strategy.

R’as al Ghul – Fighting Death Himself

He comes at a high cost, but I reckon an energy tax of this size deserves it. 

The prevalence of ‘Oracle’ has long demonstrated how energy taxing your opponent can really mess with someone’s plans, and this can be really punishing. 

In Modern Format there’s much speculation on the top tier and ‘Lantern Ring’ teams are often cited as the one to watch, but this guy could well take the edge off those teams by clearing the Reserve Pool of that much needed energy for the Ring swing. 

I’ll definitely be trying this guy out…

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There we are then folks; my “Toppermost of the Poppermost” from The Batman set spoilers.

What are your top picks? See something I don’t in my picks? Let me know in the comments below…